You write that my remarks about Dionysius are more bitter than suits my character. See how old-fashioned I am. Upon my honour I thought that you would be more angered than I: for, apart from the fact that I think you should be stirred by any injury done by anyone to me, this man in a way outraged you in treating me so badly. But it is for you to decide what weight you should give to the matter. I will not put anything upon you. I always thought the fellow was not quite sane: now I think he is an abandoned blackguard. But he is as much his own enemy as mine. You did well with Philargyrus. You certainly had a good and true case in contending that I had not abandoned but rather had been abandoned.
When I had dispatched my letter on the 25th, the servants I had sent to Matius and Trebatius brought me a letter in the following terms:
"MATIUS AND TREBATIUS TO CICERO IMPERATOR, GREETING.
"After leaving Capua we heard on the way that Pompey with all the forces he had set out from
copiis, quas habuit, profectum esse; Caesarem postero die in oppidum introisse, contionatum esse, inde Romam contendisse, velle ante K. esse ad urbem et pauculos dies ibi commorari, deinde in Hispanias proficisci. Nobis non alienum visum est, quoniam de adventu Caesaris pro certo habebamus, pueros tuos ad te remittere, ut id tu quam primum scires. Mandata tua nobis curae sunt, eaque, ut tempus postularit, agemus. Trebatius sedulo facit, ut antecedat.
Epistula conscripta nuntiatum est nobis Caesarem a. d. VIII K. April. Beneventi mansurum, a. d. VII Capuae, a. d. VI Sinuessae. Hoc pro certo putamus."
XVI
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. in Formiano VII K. Apr. a. 705